25th January, 2022
They found a body.
Mum didn't let me see it.
They said it was an eighteen-year-old female burned and mutilated beyond recognition.
Then they ran tests.
It's her.
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28th January, 2022
A part of me still refused to believe that she's gone forever. So, I had no tears to shed. People who knew how close we were saw my lack of reaction and said that I was in shock.
But was I?
The service was a small, intimate affair. Closed casket.
They put up a few pictures of her, with her nose in a book, with her parents, with her sister, with mum, with me, with her eyes behind the lens of her camera. So many memories.
Everything she loved was there: Blood red roses, her books, her camera, her written works, and even her collection of knives. Her favorite playlist was playing on loop too. She would have liked the aesthetic of it all.
My inconsolable mother and I were the only ones who were not her family. Tete's cousins had flown in, and Dr. Karstairs greeted them with polite smiles. Det. Rivers dropped by to reassure her that LAPD is doing their best to put her daughter's murderer behind bars. Mr. Karstairs watched over the entire process with a stoic face. Isis sat in a corner and shed silent tears. Other than that, no one looked much bothered about the loss of a family member.
To any third person, it must have looked like one fucked up funeral. Or should I say, one fucked up family.
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I did not believe Tete was dead. Whoever we just put six feet under wasn't her. She was alive, I knew it. It wasn't her time yet.
Mum looked at me like she knew exactly what I was thinking, and I wouldn't put it past her.
"She's gone, son. You must grieve." She said. "You must grieve and eventually move on. It's going to be painful dear, but it must be done. She's in a better place now."
"Do you really believe that? Because I don't! One moment we were talking and laughing and the next she's gone forever? How do you expect me to move on from that?"
She sighed. "It's just the way things work darling. But life must go on."
Maybe she was right. Maybe I was in denial. Maybe Det. Rivers' one-sided phone conversation that I'd overheard had nothing to do with Athena at all.
Or maybe, I was onto something.
Whatever the truth is, one thing was clear: I needed closure.
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